


Life Isn't A Fairytale (Except When It Is)

by Skyson



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Genre: Children, Established Relationship, F/M, Fluff and Humor, Future Fic, Mace x Daisy, QuakePatriot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-02
Updated: 2018-07-02
Packaged: 2019-06-01 01:58:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,703
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15132578
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Skyson/pseuds/Skyson
Summary: His daughter was probably more awake than ever, now, and it was his own fault. He was getting too into his own bedtime story. He inwardly sighed to himself. This wasn't the first time this has happened; it was usually why *he* wasn't in charge of bedtime.





	Life Isn't A Fairytale (Except When It Is)

**Author's Note:**

> Idea inspired by the cartoonist Liam Walsh and one of his New Yorker contributions that portrays a princess standing over a slain dragon, wondering "Like that?" while a knight in armor looks on in amazement. I could not figure out how to share the comic here, but it can be seen on my Tumblr post: https://captainskyson.tumblr.com/post/175455827120/life-isnt-a-fairytale-except-when-it-is

“Once upon a time, there was a princess. But you see, she didn’t know that she was a princess — and no one else knew, either.”

Big, blue eyes stared up at him from beneath a bundle of blankets.

“How come?”

“It was too dangerous! Bad men wanted to take over the kingdom, so to keep her safe, the King and Queen sent their little girl far away. They hid her, and made sure her new parents would have her live as any other regular person. That way, the bad men wouldn't ever find her or hurt her.”

The little girl nodded in understanding, her curly hair bouncing.

“But,” He began more seriously, lowering his tone a little bit, “One day the bad men found her new home anyway. So her guardians sent her away someplace new, so she wouldn't be hurt. This happened again, and again, and soon the baby became a little girl, and then a young woman, and she no longer remembered who she really was. She didn’t even know why she was always moving from place to place. But she was strong, and smart, and she knew how to take care of herself. She didn’t need anyone to protect her, anymore.”

“But what about her mom and dad? Did she go back to the castle? Did they tell her that she was a princess?”

“Oh, but she had lots of adventures, first!” He exclaimed, and the little girl’s eyes lit up. “She liked to trick the bad guys that were after her. You see, she didn’t know yet _why_  they were after her, but she knew they were there. She would send them on fake trails, disguise herself to sneak right by them, and sometimes even fight them face to face!”

“Cool.” She breathed out.

“Eventually, she was able to get some information from one of the bad guys,” He continued. “She didn’t believe him when he told her that she was the long-lost princess, but she decided to see for herself, so she travelled toward the kingdom he had told her about.”

“She was all alone the whole time?” She wondered worriedly, and Jeff smiled gently down at her.

“Not at all. She had friends, and other nice people, that would help her along the way.”

“Oh, good.” The little girl relaxed and settled into her pillows again.

“When she arrived at the castle, nothing was as she expected. It was run-down, damaged, as if a big battle had happened not so long ago. As a stranger, she wasn’t able to get inside, so she first explored the town and tried to ask the locals questions. She discovered that the bad guys had succeeded in taking over the castle and the town,”

“Oh, _no_ ,”

“ _But_ , not long before she had arrived, some of the old knights had gotten together and fought against the bad guys. They managed — just barely — to push the bad guys out of the town,”

“Yay!”

“Unfortunately the King and Queen had disappeared. No one knew what happened to them. And so the kingdom was without rulers.”

She blinked tiredly, but still watched Jeff and his broad gestures with rapt attention, so he continued on with his tale.

“Later the knights had a meeting and decided that they should go out in groups to try to find the King and Queen, or even their long-missing daughter, but each week they would come back empty-handed.”

“The Princess was right in the town!” She exclaimed, and Jeff nodded.

“She was, but they didn’t know that. She heard from the townspeople that the knights were trying to find their old rulers, so, the Princess figured that if she could help find the King and Queen, then maybe they could help her find her family.” He paused, thinking quickly. “She didn’t know the area very well, though, and unfortunately she finds herself stumbling into...” He trailed off mysteriously.

“What?” She implored.

“A giant... scary... scaly... purple dragon!” He bared his teeth and raised his hands like claws, growling a bit. She squealed, but then laughed at him.

“Dragons aren’t purple!” She informed him, still laughing, and he lowered his arms as he pouted at her.

“What? Of course they are.”

“No, they aren’t! Dragons are _green_!” She laughed again, and he huffed.

“Well, little miss dragon expert, _this_  one was purple.”

“Okay, Daddy.” She rolled her eyes, her expression and tone extremely reminiscent to her mother. Jeff bit back a smile and continued with his story.

“The dragon demanded to know why the Princess has invaded it’s territory, and prepared to turn her into a puff of smoke with a single breath.”

“Did a prince come and save her?!” The little girl demanded.

“She didn't need saving — the dragon realized that the Princess had no weapons with her. She wasn’t there to kill the dragon. She explained to the dragon that she wanted to find the King and Queen, and the dragon found that she was kinder than any of the other humans it had come across. So it decided to help her. It promised to keep an eye out for any Kings and Queens roaming about the mountains and hills, and flew up high into the sky, eventually so high that it was only a speck.”

“Then what?”

“Then...” Jeff hesitated, trying to think of generic plot points of fairy tales. “Then, a knight showed up.” She scowled at him.

“Too late! And not even necessary!”

Jeff nodded in agreement, biting his lip to keep from smiling at his little girl in amusement at her vocabulary.

“You’re right, he wasn't necessary to save the Princess. But you see, this particular knight was very close to the King and Queen, and he could see the family resemblance in the Princess’ face. So, he persuaded her to come back with him to the castle.”

“And they proved that she was the Princess?!”

“They proved that she was the Princess.” Jeff nodded again, with a smile. His daughter grinned widely. “They threw a grand party, because she had been missing for so long. Everyone who worked at the castle had been treated very well by the original King and Queen, so they felt very close to the royal family and their missing baby girl. They were all so happy that the little girl had returned to them — though now, she was a grown woman!”

“Did she get to wear a pretty dress? And dance with a prince?” She was growing noticeably more tired, snuggling further into her pillows, but she refused to allow her eyes to drift closed.

“They made for her the prettiest dresses in all the kingdom. She was shy and unsure about accepting so much, but they wanted to give her gifts, so she was grateful to them.”

“And a crown. She had a crown, too.” His daughter informed him as if she were the one telling the story, and he smiled as he brushed her bangs out of her eyes with his thumb. She would need a haircut, soon.

“A shiny crown,” He confirmed. “But even with all these nice people and nice gifts, she still wondered about her missing parents. And the knights did, too.”

“What about her prince?” She demanded.

“I’m getting there,” He consoled her. “You see, her prince didn’t come on a big white horse and save the day, as you would think.”

“He didn’t?”

“Nope. The Princess snuck back out to the mountains to meet with her dragon friend, hoping for word on the King and Queen. She didn’t tell anyone where she was going, because she knew that they would object, that they didn’t understand the dragon as she did. They were still very frightened of dragons, you see, and would probably try to hurt him. However, one of the knights caught her leaving and decided to follow her. He hid back behind some trees as she made her way up the mountain. He was terrified as he watched her slide off of her horse, tie it to a nearby tree so it wouldn’t run away, and walk right out into a big open field. This knight knew what that field was. It was a napping area for the dragon that lived nearby. It was empty at the moment, but he knew the dragon would be back. Drawing his sword, he leapt off of his own horse and bounded into the clearing, putting himself in front of the Princess and urging her to stay back in the tree line. The dragon was coming down to land, and although the knight was scared out of his boots, he would give his life to protect her if necessary.”

“What happened? Did the dragon eat him? Did he kill the dragon? He didn’t kill the dragon did he?”

“Who are you more worried about, the man or the beast?” Jeff wondered, and she merely blinked at him as if the answer should have been obvious. “You’ll be happy to know that no one died that day. In fact, it was the _Princess_  who saved the day.”

“How?” She wondered with delight.

“The dragon, seeing the man in armor holding a sword, immediately became defensive, and knew that if it didn’t attack first, it might be hurt — or worse. Just as it drew in a breath, and just as the knight lifted his sword back to swing it ‘round front, the Princess leapt between them and held her hands out toward the both of them." Jeff stood suddenly from the bed, holding his hands out as if he were imitating the Princess. "‘Stop!’ She ordered loudly, ‘This dragon is helping me!’ The knight wasn’t sure, but he did lower his sword. The dragon slowly closed it’s mouth and sat down, watching very carefully. The Princess asked it if it had found her parents, and it confirmed that it had. It knew better than to approach the royal family, though, so it had been waiting for the Princess to return to the field so it could tell her where they were. The knight was astounded by all of this, amazed that the Princess and dragon were friends. After hearing about the location of his King and Queen, the knight promised that he would never come after the dragon ever again. The dragon, in return, agreed to stay away from the flocks of sheep that belonged to their townspeople. Then, the knight and Princess returned to the castle as quickly as they could, and the knight gathered a bunch of other knights and they all went away to meet the King and Queen tell them that it was safe to return to the kingdom. Even better, they would be coming home to their daughter.”

“And they all come home happily ever after!” She grinned widely. “And the knight marries the Princess! The end!”

Jeff laughed lightly and sat back down on the edge of her bed, holding up a finger to tell her to slow down.

“Remember the bad guys who were scared away from the kingdom?”

“Oh, yeah,” She realized, growing somber again. “What happened to them?”

“They tried to attack the royal family as they were returning back to the castle. The Princess’ dragon-friend heard the noise and gathered a couple of its other dragon-friends to help the royal family. The purple dragon was very clear with it’s fellow dragons about who was friend and who was foe; so it wasn’t very long before the dragons had carried away all the bad guys to their lairs for a nice meal,”

“Gross!” She whined, but she had a pleased expression on her face about the good guys winning.

“One of the dragons was angry, though. Angry at many things about the world. He’d been attacked by lots of knights over the years, and though never defeated, he had many battle scars and wanted revenge. So he took one of the knights with him, and in all the commotion, not one of the royal family realized that one of their own was missing. Until they all returned to the castle.”

“Who was it? It was the kind knight, wasn’t it? What happened to him? Did anybody find out?” His daughter was probably more awake than ever, now, and it was his own fault. He was getting too into his own bedtime story. He inwardly sighed to himself. This wasn't the first time this has happened; it was usually why  _he_  wasn't in charge of bedtime.

“Well, first there was a big happy gathering once the King and Queen returned to their castle. Then there was a big reunion between them and their daughter, the Princess, and all three of them were so happy. The Princess thanked each of the knights individually, appreciating all that they had done during the rescue and even over all the years before, doing what they could to keep the bad guys away. That was when she realized her friend wasn’t there.”

“The good knight.”

“Well, they’re all good, more or less.”

“The _extra_  good knight.”

Jeff smirked to himself at that. He’d get teased for that one, for sure, if anyone were overhearing this bedtime story.

“She demanded to know what happened, and everyone realized all at once that he must’ve gone missing when the hoard of dragons had come. The Princess figured that one of the dragons might’ve mistook him as an enemy, or perhaps simply wanted vengeance on the knights of the kingdom. They knew that no one else was missing, and before anyone could stop her, the Princess grabbed a scabbard and hopped on a horse, riding as fast as she could to where her dragon-friend lived.”

“Wait, what’s a scabbard?” She wrinkled her nose. “That sounds gross.” Jeff laughed gently and answered,

“It’s not like what you get when you bump your knee,” He told her, tickling at the covers over her leg. She giggled and kicked at him. “It’s a kind of case, that holds a sword.”

“Oh, okay,” She realized, having seen pictures of those before.

“So the Princess goes riding out into the mountains, wearing her pretty dress and shiny crown and carrying a sharp sword, and guess what?”

“She saved the knight?” She asked hopefully, and he nodded and smiled.

“She saved the knight. The purple dragon told her where the mean old dragon lived, and she went and tricked the beast, who only thought that she was a weak little human. She defeated the mean dragon, and saved the knight before he could be eaten.”

She tugged her arms out from beneath the covers so she could clap happily.

“And _then_  they got married and lived happily ever after!”

Jeff straightened and smiled down at his daughter as he smoothed the blankets over her again.

“The knight was so astounded by her strength and her beauty that he kissed her right on the spot.”

“Grossss!” She wrinkled her nose, and he laughed as he leaned over to peck a kiss on the tip of it.

“And they lived happily ever after.” He assured her softly, smoothing his hand against her hair. She smiled sleepily at him, and wrapped her arms around his neck to give him a hug.

“Night, Daddy.”

“Goodnight, sweetheart,” He returned the hug, pressing another kiss against her temple before he got to his feet and tucked her in. She was asleep before he even flipped the light switch off, and he quietly closed the door before he headed down the hallway.

“Bedtime stories are supposed to be short and sweet, you know,” Daisy informed him, leaning against the corner of the wall by the kitchen, sipping from her glass of water.

“I couldn’t stop in the middle!” He protested. “We had to see how it ended.” Daisy gave him an amused expression as she set her glass down on the counter and stepped closer to him.

“I think you know exactly how it ended,” She murmured, sliding her fingers along his chest until her palm was pressed flat to his t-shirt, right overtop of his heartbeat. “Astounded by my strength and beauty, huh?” She teased, and he acted as if he were confused.

“I don’t know what you mean; I was just telling a random story about...” He trailed off as she simply stared at him with that soft smile on her face. He sighed, and covered her hand with his own as he leaned in to kiss her warmly. Her smile widened against his lips and she curled her other hand around the back of his neck to hold him close while she deepened the kiss.  
  


**———**

 

“This morning, your little girl informed me very seriously that she was going to save me one day from a dragon.” Coulson announced as a greeting when he stepped into the office.

Jeff slowly looked up from the file he’d been reading and raised his eyebrow, and Daisy snorted, pausing her hunt through one of his filing cabinets.

“This is just her being a kid, right? We don’t have any dragon problems I need to know about?” Coulson asked gravely.

“No dragon problems,” Daisy smirked, glancing sideways to gauge Jeff’s facial expression, “but maybe little-kid-crush problems.”

“What?” Coulson wondered, and Jeff groaned.

“Don’t even — she does not have a _crush_ ,” Jeff protested. “She’s too young for me to be worrying about boys already!”

“What?” Coulson wondered again with slightly more emphasis.

“Oh, hush. It’s cute,” Daisy rolled her eyes at her husband. “She’s just a little girl,” She eyed Coulson in a way that made Jeff frown a little. “Besides, I could see him as a knight in shining armor.” She smirked.

“Hey!” Jeff protested more adamantly. " _I'm_ the one with the armor! Actual armor!"

“Aw, she’s got a crush on me?” Coulson smiled a little, ignoring Jeff's fuss. “That’s cute. Unfortunately, someone’s going to have to break it to her that I’m her godfather. Not to mention way too old for her.”

“She’ll grow out of it,” Daisy waved her hand in a nonchalant gesture. “Besides, as soon as Talbot comes around again she’ll forget all about you anyway,”

“ _Daisy_ , we talked about this!” Jeff huffed, pinching the bridge of his nose as if he had a headache. “I don’t care how old she is or how innocent it is, I don’t ever want to think about my little girl having a crush on _Talbot_.”

“I think she’s more fascinated with the uniform, than anything else.” Daisy offered, and Jeff groaned.

“Next time Talbot shows up here, you best be wearing a damned suit of armor.” Jeff growled toward Coulson, who laughed as he tossed the file in his hands atop Jeff’s desk.

“I’ll see what I can do.” He threw a wink toward Daisy before walking back out of the room.

“Is this normal?” Jeff wondered desperately, and Daisy nodded and briefly patted his shoulder before she returned to digging through the filing cabinet.

“Totally normal. I mean, usually I think it’s something more like ‘I’m gonna marry Daddy when I grow up’ or whatever — at least that’s what the Hallmark movies tell me.”

“She’s never said that to me...” Jeff pouted. “What, am I not good enough marriage material?”

“Eh, you’re alright.” Daisy replied in a tone as if she were only half-listening to him.

He pursed his lips at her in fake annoyance, and she leaned to the side to press a chaste kiss against his forehead before she returned to work.

“Should I have a talk with her about boys, later today?” Daisy figured, mostly teasing him still.

“Oh, God.” He groaned again.

“Just wait until she’s a teenager. When I was nineteen, I met a guy who was at least twenty— ”

“You’re killing me, Daisy.” He interrupted wryly, and she laughed and set the file she’d pulled free atop the open drawer, wrapping her arms around his torso as she nuzzled his cheek. She kissed his jaw, and briefly nibbled the curve of his ear.

“Mm.” He smiled as he relaxed, allowing the brief pleasure to course through him and distract him. Daisy had always been good at that; distracting him. Most of the time he was totally okay with it, but sometimes....

“Hell, guys, come on,” Mack complained from the doorway, and Jeff opened his eyes quickly, remembering that they were in his office and the door was wide open. “Elena and I don’t even do that in public!”

“Oh, please — the two of you kiss in public all the time.” Daisy rolled her eyes, pulling her arms away from Jeff and straightening. She moved away from his chair to grab the file she’d been looking for, and nudged the cabinet drawer shut.

“Kissing and necking are two different things.” Mack informed her, and pointed at Jeff. “That was necking.”

“It’s _my_  office.” Jeff grouched, mildly disappointed that they’d been interrupted.

“Yeah, that has a _door_.” Mack returned, giving him a pointed look. Jeff sighed, straightened his tie, and focused back on work.

“You got the report for me?” He asked tiredly, and Mack nodded and entered the room fully.

“See you later, Boss,” Daisy said to Jeff with a very syrupy tone of voice. She winked at him and sauntered out of the room, swinging her hips in a way that told Jeff that she knew he was staring.

“Hey,” Mack called out, dropping the file with a pointed slap against the desktop. “Work, man.”

“She’s _my_  wife. I can check her out all she wants me to.” Jeff retorted, and Mack rolled his eyes.

“Sure, but do you have to do it so obviously? In front of me? That’s my partner. It’s already enough I gotta deal with your daughter shadowing my _other_  partner around everywhere the past couple of days.”

“What?” Jeff wondered, not following for a moment.

“Coulson. Don’t get me wrong, she’s cute and I adore her, but it’s hard to talk about work sometimes when she’s in the room. We gotta talk about aliens killing each other but she’s sitting there staring at Coulson like he’s hung the moon,”

“Why don’t we focus on work, huh?” Jeff interrupted quickly. Mack smirked, nodded, and settled into the chair across from Jeff.

* * *

 


End file.
